And this, painted just a few years after El Jaleo, by Wm. Bouguereau. These kids just slay me.

Une Vocation, 1890, 22x18

I don't know, the red in the Spanish Dancer painting just seems out of place to me, especially since the color is only somewhat repeated in the apple on the chair. Maybe it is meant to symbolize something or it's just there because he felt like it?!

On the other hand the painting of the Sitwel family, the red even though dominant, does get repeated several times throughout the painting, making it feel less out of sorts. The same holds true for the interior scene, where hints of the color can be found on the opposite wall.

Thank you everyone for your opinion!

I believe that both the red dress at the edge and the less saturated apple(?) in the chair are deliberate compositional devices. As to the exact reasoning and placement, mine would just be a shot in the dim light. However, to extend my guess, I would say that were Sargent here to explain we would hear a definite reasoning for every gram.

Here's a guy, Sargent, who at the time of this painting that follows, could have painted anything and anyone, and yet he felt the need to paint this - a torn down sugar refinery. I would be fascinated to know what compelled him to draw down on this subject.

And an interesting composition with very rich color and texture.

1- A wrecked sugar refinery, w/c 1918, 28x22
2- Val d-Aosta man fishing, oil 1907, 22x28

Composition is merely the placing of objects of various forms and colors in a pleasing way. Each viewer becomes a judge in their own experience.

Over time we try to learn from those before us. One way to study is to make a list and compartmentalize the different types.

Over time it would be easy to teach composition to others seeking knowledge by going through an organized chart of some kind. By this method a student might consider these examples the complete list of different types of composition.

This is natural and is not a bad thing. It is what it is.

But once in a while someone comes along and creates a new twist. Some will accept it and some won't. After all it is a personal choice and as someone once said "you can't please all of the people all of the time".

My personality is a strong desire to start something new and abandon the old. I struggle with this at the end of my paintings. But because of this I find it easier to accept the contrary and even relish in it.

I find the red dress a wonderful and exciting way to drag the viewer to the right edge of the canvas and the severe cropping of the dancer effectively stops the eye and allows it back into the canvas. My wish is that he did this on purpose because I'm a huge fan and it just makes him even better in my mind.

I'm not familiar with the last two paintings and I will study the first one more thoroughly. The Fishermen's composition is obvious on first sight.

I see composition as not being a personal preference, but more of a human preference. There is a balance which presents it's self to the human brain, a balance of shapes, intensities, and their relationships to each other and to the edge of the canvas.

It can get subjective around the edges (not literal edge), but in the mainstream I believe that most people will agree with what is, and what is not - in balance. Most people, however, would never be able to articulate the variances which bring a composition into a harmonic balance.

If I presented the two images below to a wide selection of people I think most would see that the first is out of balance with the edge of the canvas. The second is at least getting better. A small percentage would disagree but they would also enjoy potted meat.

I see good composition as being in harmony, and in balance with the way most humans view the natural world, a kind of Feng shui. Bad composition just gets under your skin and irritates.

Mike,

You put it much better. Thank you.

The first image I find compelling and almost mysterious. The second more pleasing.

I guess I do like potted meat, whatever that means. I would probably prefer that to MacDonalds.

An odd segue re RED
 

Red

Mary O

Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night

Clown - Let her hang me: he that is well hanged
in this world needs to fear no colours.

I'm no Golden Ratio expert, but it would be interesting to see how El Jaleo holds up to that.

Good idea. I should have brought this up long before now.

I don't have time at the moment to illustrate the golden mean, but my rough estimate for "El Jaleo" puts it at approximately the highlight of the guitar being played on the right in the left half of the painting.

If you apply the golden mean to the two photographs I posted above the second one's golden mean is the inside corner of her left eye, the first is in the area of her temple.

Golden Mean = horizontal divided by 2.62, vertical divided by 2.62. With lines drawn representing these numbers, their intersection would be the golden mean.

I'll have time to confirm these measurements a little later, unless someone beats me to it.